Contributor Rules

Information about contributing art..

Being an advanced manipulation group, high standards must be upheld. When accepting art look for a definite light source, a grounded subject and of course, everyone's favorite, shadows. Does the focal point work for the manip, is the subject well placed on a background that 'fits'? Is the manip not overly blurred or dark? All in all, we're looking to only accept the best.

When voting, we put the utmost care into our decisions. If we decline your work, we're required to state a reason. If a contributor fails to state a reason for the decline on more than 3 consecutive, or 5 cumulative votes they will be demoted to member status. As stated above, we're here for growth, not to diminish the work of others.

When getting critiqued on a submission through the voting process please understand that we're here to help you improve and realize that though every piece is a work of art in and of itself, not all submissions are accepted into the group. Simply because one of your pieces was not accepted does not belittle you as an artist, it just gives you room and area to grow. Please be civil when accepting a critique and realize that everyone is required to voice their opinion when denying artwork. If you feel you are being mistreated please send us a civil message and we will look into it.

Last words..

Be courteous and kind to others. We're all graphic artists looking to get even better, we're not here to fight and attack each other.

If you have an issue with a member, please take it up with them in private. This is a graphic group, not a battle field. Graphic submission pages are there to maturely discuss the positives and negatives of a graphic, not to duke it out for all you're worth because you dislike another member. If you argue/attack/harass/etc members on the submission pages I'll send you a warning, but if it continues, as much as it pains me to do so, you will be removed

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Information

Welcome

Anyone is free to join as a member, there is no voting on it, you're simply accepted. With a 'Member' status you are not only a valued watcher of the group, but you'll also be included in the multiple contests, giveaways and raffles we hope to host in the future. You will also be notified of any and all art submissions and blog entries. Members cannot contribute art to the featured folder, if you are interested in submitting your artwork please consider joining as a 'Contributor' or if you feel you are not quite up to standard then consider joining our sister group prequimanipulate. See more about this below!

Joining as a contributor!

Our contributors are those artists who fall under the advanced spectrum of manipulation. equimanipulate is a group for the elite and being so we must hold our contributors to a high regard. In order to be considered for the Contributor's status we ask that you have at least 5 or more manipulations in your gallery of advanced quality. By submitting a request to join as a contributor you're accepting the fact that you will be constructively critiqued. We're a group for improving for the better and we fin one of the best ways one improves is through peer review.

When requesting to join as a contributor, we vote in sections of 5. You need either 5 votes yes to join or 5 votes no to decline. As stated above, we have high standards and the first few people to comment will give critique and insight as to what needs to be improved before being voted in as a contributor. All repetitive voter comments will not be seen by you, but they will be seen by us. We encourage all members who are declined to please keep at it, don't feel let down and keep pressing forward. We all started somewhere and it's those of you who don't give up and keep at it that turn into some of the bests artists out there.

Not advanced yet?

If you're overwhelmed by all that information and don't feel that you're ready for this, consider joining our sister group prequimanipulate. prequimanipulate is aimed at helping those who are of a beginner or intermediate level of photomanipulation improve into the higher levels. We'll offer friendly advice and support or nothing at all if that's what you'd prefer!

Comments

I've tried looking for a group (like prequimanipulate) because I am an emerging artist and I'm still learning.

Firstly, does anyone just so happen to know of any such groups?

Secondly, I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me any critiques/pointers for improvements as I venture further into the world of equine photomanipulation. I'd love to apply to be a contributor some day! My latest piece of art is here:

I've been wanting to join this group for quite some time, but have been too busy to create many manipulations (college does that to you, haha). Now that I'm out of college and have time again, I was wondering if anyone could offer up some critiques? I only have one recent piece so far, but I was wondering if anyone would have any pointers for improvement before I apply as a contributor. Here is a link to my latest piece, but feel free to peruse my gallery as well.

It kinda is, but I'm hoping I'll be free to write some critiques and it gives me an easy platform to write them in that you can always go find later! So yeah it is a little inactive but I'm hoping I can maybe start giving a critique every now and again c:

(responding to here and copy/pasting to equimanipulate since you asked both groups)

I personally think you are right on the brink of ready. Your latest, the cute fairy foal, is your closest piece, with only a few technical issues-- a more distinct/shaped shadow, a bit more shading on the horse (like being darker on the underparts) so the subject blends more completely with the background, and a transition between the wings and shoulder, preferably a transition of muscle, and lastly a bit smoother on the highlighting and shading on the body so it isn't quite as line-like. But I will say the manip itself is gorgeous, the style of the wings is beautiful and I love the whimsy of the horse prancing along the branch! The colors are unique and I like the choice of darkness in the scene, so it has a more fairy fantasy in twilight vibe. The background bits are perfect, too, like the mushrooms, though the butterflies are definitely my favorite touch, their powder blue coloring is an amazing balance to the navy tones of the night. This is also your best hair by far, the tail is really good, sharp and clear with the perfect amount of dimension. I'm also a big fan of the markings and how clear but blended they are into the coat! I'm a personal fan of background blurring too so I like that you did that, it also helps increase the idea of this being a tiny little fairy foal instead of a regular-sized one.

Your previous ones are a bit lower in skill, though not by much, some things I notice is thick hair strands instead of smaller, more detailed ones, especially at the tips. I also would love to see more grounding occurring with full backgrounds and again the direction light, like in Sunlight Gallops the horse would be silhouetted--very, very dark on the side facing the viewer, with the very edges extremely lit up. Bright back-lighting like that is one of the hardest to achieve! They still intimidate me cuz I lose all my detail in the silhouette dark part. x.x The Stroll is another one of my favorites and another one of your bests, it's pretty dang crisp, clear, and the lighting is the most accurate. I notice you do a sort of expanded outline on overlay, and while I do love the effect, I think it'd be far more suited on the horse itself instead of around it as an aura--and if you do add it to the horse, try to make it very narrow and not too prominent, more like a subtle touch. I incorporate a lot of outlines into my art but it took me a while to learn the right level of moderation on it, and nowadays I use solid-colored outlines (instead of on overlay or soft light, for example) with a slightly lowered opacity, a soft brush eraser to make sure it has gentle transitions, and I aim for only a few pixels wide. I apply it either with selection > modify > contract (assuming you use photoshop) and then an eraser or I hand-paint it on using a clipping mask and a soft circular default brush. When I use the soft brush version, I paint outside of the actual horse's body so that only the edge of the soft stroke is appearing on the outline, rather than painting it with the center of the brush on the outline because that is much harder to do and makes a sort of wobbly, harsh effect.

Hopefully this helps and encourages! You are seriously very talented and I see huge improvement from one manip to the next, which is amazing. So many artists plateau for dozens of manips before any progress is made, and I once plateau'd for 2-3 years, which was insanely frustrating. I feel like your constant leaps forward will make you stellar in a short time. So keep practicing and working on it! And be sure to fill your gallery with high-quality, not just 1-2, because we need to see several of the same caliber. The more you make and the more you study tutorials and other peoples' manips, the faster you're gonna get into this group.

In the meantime, there are plenty of groups to join! I don't know which ones you are already a part of, but Equine-Nation is one of the biggest and accepts all horse art. prequimanipulate is another one that accepts all horse art and can be great for improvement. There are hundreds of horse groups but those are the large ones that pop into my head right off the bat.

Feel free to note me anytime! I respond really slowly, but I always will at some point. Best of luck on your continued art journey! You have a Watcher in me!